re: #261 wheat-dogg

There’s a famous null result from physics that is a good example: the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887. Michelson and Morley were convinced that the speed of light as measured from the moving Earth would be different depending on the relative direction of the light beam to the Earth’s orbital motion. They designed an ingenious apparatus to measure minute differences in the speed of light (the interferometer), and after many attempts found NO differences at all. Big puzzler.

Then Einstein in 1905 publishes his first relativity paper, which in part says, “Oh the speed of light is invariant. Everybody no matter how fast they are moving — or in what direction — will measure the same speed of light.” So, the M-M experiment verified Einstein’s postulate years before Einstein published it!

Interestingly, Einstein claimed he was not aware of the Michelson-Morley experiment before he published in 1905. It was only after that colleagues told him about it.

And there’s a reasonable argument to be made that he didn’t know since there’s hints at that elsewhere. Maxwell’s equations imply a constant speed of light.